FirstEnergy receives award for Sandy response

Thursday

Jan 17, 2013 at 11:20 AMJan 17, 2013 at 11:22 AM

FirstEnergy Corp. has received an “Emergency Recovery Award” from the Edison Electric Institute in recognition of its outstanding response in restoring power to customers after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of its territory in October 2012.

The hurricane made landfall in late October, impacting the company’s electrical infrastructure and knocking out power to 2.3 million FirstEnergy customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia.

The storm packed severe wind and precipitation that downed thousands of trees, power lines and poles, and produced significant flooding, as well as heavy snowfall in mountainous West Virginia and Maryland.

“Hurricane Sandy was the most destructive storm in our history, prompting our largest-ever storm restoration effort,” said Anthony J. Alexander, president and chief executive officer of FirstEnergy. “I am proud to accept this award on behalf of the thousands of FirstEnergy employees and others who worked tirelessly in extreme conditions to get the lights back on to millions of our customers.”

More than 19,000 FirstEnergy employees, outside contractors and utility workers teamed up during Hurricane Sandy to make repairs and restore service to our customers.

EEI’s Emergency Recovery Award is presented each year to utilities that have excelled in restoring power disrupted by severe weather or other natural events.